VGR: Tales of the Abyss (PS2)

Before I write anything, VGR = Video Game Review for those slightly slower then others (just kidding!).

I was interested in renting this game to try ever since I heard about it. This was mostly due to the fact that I’ve played tales of destiny 2 and greatly enjoyed it. I still have mixed feelings about the game itself but I’m mostly leaning towards positive.

So starting up the game for the first time, I was introduced with a fairly appealing anime cutscene. Although the anime part of it was well done, the 3D seemed like it was lacking in frames per second. Really really choppy 3D animation for a PS2; looked pretty much like PS1 fps. Based on experience from playing many other role playing games, I prevented myself from getting too excited about a cutscene because I knew I would be let down for the most part. I was getting the general, “I wish the rest of the game was like this” kind of feel, even though I hadn’t played the game yet. Anyways moving on…

Game starts off with some fairly old kid looking out of a fancy house window, nothing too special, though you do get the imediate feel of confinement which is good for the story. Honestly, the opening is pretty lack luster, I prefer more epic openings. Good thing the battle system makes up for it.

Many improvements have been made to the combat system including the default “straight line” fighting combat, aswell was a free range 3D plane fighting style. Both of which are grealy utilized during combat. This game depends greatly on how you control your character in combat aswell as where you stand during certian attacks. This addition greatly reduces the number of players just mashing the X button in previous “Tales” games. I don’t know if this was included in previous games but you can also team up with a friend and have him control another one of your allies, very very fun. Even though I never buy games, I’m thinking about buying this due to the multiplayer gameplay.

The graphics are colourful and the environments are well detailed. The only thing that really bothers me is the character animations. Although there is a wide variety of animations, alot of them seem really jaged and poorly constructed. The character models themselves recreate the anime feel very well.

The real winner for this game is the voice overs. They have been done many times before and failed horribly, but this game seems to have an appealing taste. Also, an enormous amount of dialogue is voice overed, and the great part is that it doesn’t seem to shorten the length of the game. I’m sure the game has many other additions which I have not reached or unlocked due to only renting the game, but I may fix that in the near future.

Average Score [8]

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